Masters of All Time
"Masters of All Time" is the thirty-sixth episode of the animated TV series Danny Phantom. Summary When Vlad receives Ecto-Acne again, he gets Danny to help by infecting his friends with the same illness. Danny begs Clockwork to let him travel to the past to a world where Vlad Plasmius does not exist. When he succeeds, Danny ends up in an alternate world where his mother has married Vlad and his father, Jack, is a bitter half ghost himself! Episode Recap At the Nasty Burger the trio are hanging out peacefully until a panicking Jazz enters, desperately trying to hide from embarrassment in the forms of Jack and Maddie entering the fast food joint dressed in '80s clothing for an '80s-themed party. Embarrassing Danny by interacting with him (giving him his wallet, hugging him, etc.), Danny storms out the back door as his peers laugh, his friends following behind. Outside, he expresses how he wishes for more normal parents. His anger is interrupted when Vlad Plasmius appears, turning human as he has another outbreak of Ecto-Acne. He begs for Danny's help to cure it, something the trio aren't willing to do. In order to force Danny to help him, Vlad infects Sam and Tucker with the same illness before falling unconscious. Danny tries desperately to wake Vlad but instead gets ambushed by Jack and Maddie. He flies off while the parents eye Vlad, Sam, and Tucker, all infected while Jazz returns with a now human Danny. The infected ones are taken to Fenton Works (the entire house now covered with biohazard sheets and signs) where they are examined. They, however, are unable to find a cure for the three. Danny threatens Vlad afterwards when he proclaims his friends are running out of time, which gives the boy an idea. Going to Clockwork's lair, Danny begs for him to send him to the past where he can prevent Vlad from ever getting Ecto-Acne in the first place, thus preventing him from acquiring ghost powers. Clockwork reluctantly does so, opening a portal to his parents' college days, warning him not to screw up time any further then he should. Finding a flyer of the prototype ghost portal on the school bulletin board, Danny manages to find the laboratory where Jack, Maddie and Vlad are testing the proto-portal. Jack accidentally grabs a diet cola instead of the Ecto-Purifier, pours it into the Ecto-Filtrator, and activates the machinery behind the portal with it while Vlad tries to confess his love for Maddie. Jack then activates the portal, but this time Danny pushes Vlad out the way. The ecto-energy ricochets off the walls and heads straight for Maddie. Vlad saves her in time, something she is grateful for. Danny ends up back in the present through Clockwork's help, satisfied he had managed to make a better future. However, when he returns home, he finds the Fenton household is missing the Ops Center. Heading inside (now as human), Danny finds the house is a complete mess. To further add to the shock Jack comes with ecto-acne on his face, wondering who Danny is. The boy tries to convince him that he is Jack's son, but he claims he is single, bitter, and alone. He then angrily transforms into Jack Plasmius and commences to attack Danny (who also goes ghost as an act of self-defense). Jack angrily fights Danny, stating his hatred of ghosts, saying it was the cause of him being separated from Maddie. Danny heads to the basement to go back to Clockwork, but unfortunately there is no ghost portal there. Danny tries to squeeze through the old proto-portal but instead finds a newspaper clipping of Vlad marrying Maddie. Jack continues to try and destroy Danny until the latter convinces him to state what happened 20 years ago. Jack explains the Ecto-Blast from the proto-portal ended up hitting him in the face, causing him to get ghost powers while Vlad ended up with Maddie. With his powers, he tried to be a superhero (which was bad timing on his part, having chased after a ghost when in reality it was a kid in a ghost costume for Halloween), then he tried in vain to find a cure for his ailing half inside his home. Danny states it was his fault he ended that way, going as far as showing a picture of the Fenton family from his wallet. This only further angers Jack who claims he is lying so he goes on the offensive, causing Danny to exit the house and leave to find his mother, hoping she has a ghost portal. He goes to Vlad's manor where he finds Vlad and Maddie, now a married couple. Calling Maddie his "mom" prompts the couple to invite him in and feed him, as well as question him on where his folks are. Danny answers the question then asks if they have a ghost portal to which Vlad vehemently shouts that they do not talk about ghosts, ever. Danny points out the Ecto-Foamer sticking out partially from a nearby closet to which Maddie quickly cries out that it's just a carpet foamer. Later that night, Danny searches in vain until he finds Maddie's secret ghost lab, including a ghost portal. About to go in, he is ambushed by Maddie with her "Maddie Weasel" and strapped to a table where she hopes to dissect the half ghost. A desperate Danny once again states he is her son and that Jack still loves her despite what Vlad said to her (stating that Jack blamed her for his problems). Jack suddenly flies down from nowhere to confirm this, going as far as showing Danny's wallet storing the photo of the Fenton family. Happy to be with Jack, she hugs him and then frees Danny. The two then hug the boy, now realizing he is from an alternate timeline. Maddie opens the ghost portal for Danny to go through but Vlad interrupts, blasting the ghosts with the Ecto Foamer. Danny, strapped to the table again, cries out that none of this should be happening, something Vlad doesn't care for saying that he likes it this way. When Jack comes to save Danny, Vlad shoots a laser beam in his way. Jack creates a shield, but the laser pushes him to the ghost portal, causing it to overload and Jack to apparently die. Upset, Maddie sends Vlad flying into the ghost portal where he is quickly hounded by various ghosts. She then tells Danny to fix the past. Flying into the Ghost Zone, the portal then explodes. He returns to Clockwork who once again refuses, saying the most he'll do is fix the past to the way it was before Danny messed with it. He then observes it, noticing that Jack from 20 years back spilled Diet Cola inside the Ecto-Filtrator that worked the proto-portal, giving Danny an idea, one which Clockwork merely smiles at. Back in the Fenton household Sam, almost fading, struggles to tell those nearby to confess something to Danny. However Danny comes and suggests that his parents use Diet Cola for the cure. Maddie mixes up a batch which cures all three to great success, much to everyone's relief. Vlad suggests to Danny afterwards to let bygones be bygones to which Danny does...by sending him flying through the air. The Fenton parents are on stage later that night for their '80s-themed party. Much to Jazz's further embarrassment, Danny (dressed in '80s clothing as well) joins in on the fun, saying he better appreciates his parents' past and present. Series continuity *This episode delves deeper into Vlad's college lab accident first shown in "Bitter Reunions." Trivia *Allusions: ''See List of allusions '' *Goofs: ''See List of goofs '' *This is the second Butch Hartman cartoon in which a son ruins his father's life by changing the past. The first was "Father Time," a Fairly OddParents episode. **Danny also came to the same conclusion as Timmy in "Father Time": Jack and Maddie never got married. As a result, Danny and Jasmine were never born, and since Danny never existed, Sam and Tucker never became his friends, which was not at all what Danny wanted. *Jack's transformation rings are white while Vlad's transformation rings were black. *Running gag 1: Since he's single, Jack got a cat and named it Jasmine. *Running gag 2: Jack meant to grab Ecto-purifier in the college accident, but instead grabbed a diet soda. When he uses it to cure Vlad at the end, he meant to grab diet soda, but instead grabbed the Ecto-purifier. *Character revelations: **It is likely that Jack did not pick Danny's name. Gallery Category:Episodes Category:Season 2 episodes Category:Episodes that involve time traveling Category:Episodes with one-shot antagonists Category:Real world